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    Trump Administration Delays Requirement for Companies to Track Tainted Food

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    A law passed in 2011 required food companies to track food in the event of contamination and a recall. The administration delayed the move, set to take effect next year, for 30 months.The Food and Drug Administration said on Thursday that it would delay by 30 months a requirement that food companies and grocers rapidly trace contaminated food through the supply chain and pull it off the shelves.Intended to “limit food-borne illness and death,” the rule required companies and individuals to maintain better records to identify where foods are grown, packed, processed or manufactured. It was set to go into effect in January 2026 as part of a landmark food safety law passed in 2011, and was advanced during President Trump’s first term.Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, has expressed interest in chemical safety in food, moving to ban food dyes and on Thursday debuting a public database where people can track toxins in foods. But other actions in the first months of the Trump administration have undercut efforts to tackle bacteria and other contaminants in food that have sickened people. The administration’s cutbacks included shutting down the work of a key food-safety committee and freezing the spending on credit cards of scientists doing routine tests to detect pathogens in food.There were several high-profile outbreaks in recent years, including the cases last year linked to deadly listeria in Boar’s Head meat and E. coli in onions on McDonald’s Quarter Pounders.The postponement raised alarms among some advocacy organizations on Thursday.“This decision is extremely disappointing and puts consumers at risk of getting sick from unsafe food because a small segment of the industry pushed for delay, despite having 15 years to prepare,” said Brian Ronholm, director of food policy at Consumer Reports, an advocacy group.Many retailers have already taken the steps to comply with the rule. Still, trade groups for the food industry lobbied to delay implementation of the rule in December, according to The Los Angeles Times.In a letter to President Trump in December, food makers and other corporate trade groups cited a number of regulations that they said were “strangling our economy.” They asked for the food traceability rule to be pared back and delayed.“This is a huge step backward for food safety,” said Sarah Sorscher, director of regulatory affairs at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy group. “What’s so surprising about it is this was a bipartisan rule.”Ms. Sorscher said there was broad support for the measure, since it would protect consumers and businesses, which could limit the harm, the reputational damage and the cost of a food recall with a high-tech supply chain. More

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      Food Safety Jeopardized by Onslaught of Funding and Staff Cuts

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      The Trump administration halted some food testing and shut down a committee studying bacteria in infant formula. Earlier funding cutbacks under the Biden administration now threaten state labs and inspectors.In the last few years, foodborne pathogens have had devastating consequences that alarmed the public. Bacteria in infant formula sickened babies. Deli meat ridden with listeria killed 10 people and led to 60 hospitalizations in 19 states. Lead-laden applesauce pouches poisoned young children.In each outbreak, state and federal officials connected the dots from each sick person to a tainted product and ensured the recalled food was pulled off the shelves.Some of those employees and their specific roles in ending outbreaks are now threatened by Trump administration measures to increase government efficiency, which come on top of cuts already being made by the Food and Drug Administration’s chronically underfunded food division.Like the food safety system itself, the cutbacks and new administrative hurdles are spread across an array of federal and state agencies.At the Food and Drug Administration, freezes on government credit card spending ordered by the Trump administration have impeded staff members from buying food to perform routine tests for deadly bacteria. In states, a $34 million cut by the F.D.A. could reduce the number of employees who ensure that tainted products — like tin pouches of lead-laden applesauce sold in 2023 — are tested in labs and taken off store shelves. F.D.A. staff members are also bracing for further Trump administration personnel reductions.And at the Agriculture Department, a committee studying deadly bacteria was recently disbanded, even as it was developing advice on how to better target pathogens that can shut down the kidneys. Committee members were also devising an education plan for new parents on bacteria that can live in powdered infant formula. “Further work on your report and recommendations will be prohibited,” read a Trump administration email to the committee members.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Boar’s Head Listeria Outbreak Survivors Describe Harrowing Illnesses

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      The outbreak, linked to Boar’s Head products, has been especially devastating for high-risk groups like pregnant women and older adults.Ashley Solberg wasn’t worried about the risk to her pregnancy when she bought Boar’s Head sliced ham from a Florida supermarket in May. Her doctor had told her the risk was negligible, Ms. Solberg said, and she’d eaten deli meat without any issues in her last pregnancy. So she used it to make a poolside lunch for her parents and toddler.It was only when she returned home to Coon Rapids, Minn., that she started to feel ill. When her fever persisted for a third day, she went to a hospital, where a blood test revealed she had been infected with the bacteria Listeria monocytogenes. A doctor told Ms. Solberg, who was 36 weeks pregnant, that she might need an emergency C-section, or worse.“The doctor came in and said there’s a possibility that your baby won’t make it, and said over and over how serious a listeria infection is,” she said. “I was terrified.”Ms. Solberg, 33, is one of 57 people across 18 states who have been hospitalized in an ongoing listeria outbreak tied to Boar’s Head deli meats. The bacteria thrive in cold temperatures, which is why listeria is more commonly found in processed meats, fruit and dairy products. Contaminated food can also deposit the bacteria on counters, deli-meat slicers and other places where food is processed.Most people don’t get very sick from listeria. But for older adults, immunocompromised people and pregnant women, an infection can cause serious health issues or even death. All nine deaths linked to the outbreak have been of people older than 70, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Ms. Solberg and others sickened in the outbreak described their shock at falling seriously ill after eating cold cuts or liverwurst they had enjoyed without issues for years. One patient had to pause her chemotherapy treatments for leukemia to battle the infection. Some became so ill they had to spend weeks receiving IV antibiotics, and are still trying to regain their strength.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Boar’s Head Recalls 7 Million More Pounds of Meat Amid Listeria Outbreak

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      The announcement came less than a week after Boar’s Head recalled more than 200,000 pounds of meat during an outbreak that has killed two and sickened more than two dozen.Boar’s Head recalled seven million additional pounds of deli meat on Tuesday, expanding a recall of more than 200,000 pounds after its product was linked on Monday to a listeria outbreak that has left two people dead and sickened nearly three dozen.The expanded recall includes all meats and poultry processed at a Boar’s Head facility in Jarratt, Va. The decision to broaden the recall came after the company learned from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that a sample of its liverwurst from a Maryland store that had tested positive for listeria bacteria had matched the strain in the nationwide outbreak.“Based on this new information, we took steps to ensure we are doing everything possible to protect public health,” Boar’s Head said in a statement on its website on Tuesday. The company added that it had suspended operations involving ready-to-eat meats at the Jarratt facility until further notice.The company announced its initial recall on July 25, calling back all products that had been processed on the same production line and on the same day, June 27, as the contaminated liverwurst. That recall amounted to 207, 528 pounds of meat comprising 10 different products sliced at deli counters and sold in retail stores.Now, the recall covers every item produced at the Virginia facility, a sweeping list of 71 products bearing the Boar’s Head and Old Country brand names produced from May 10 through July 29, the U.S.D.A.’s Food Safety and Inspection Service said.The list of products includes multipound loaves of “Strassburger Brand Liverwurst MADE IN VIRGINIA” with sell-by dates ranging from July 25 to Aug. 30 and meats made for slicing at delis with an Aug. 10 sell-by date. Some of those meats include: Virginia ham, Italian Cappy Ham, Extra Hot Italian Cappy Ham, Pork & Beef Bologna, Beef Salami, Beef Bologna and Garlic Bologna.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More